lifeonearth
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Meteorites may have helped seed life on Earth
There are many theories about how life evolved on the planet Earth, from formation under a layer of ice, protected from the UV radiation above, to vents in the deep sea that provided hydrogen-rich molecules. But now one team of scientists has found quantitative results that support a theory that is literally out of this world. Organic molecules from meteorites that landed in small, warm pools of water may have delivered the ingredients necessary for life to form on Earth.
UCLA chemist: Life on Earth began way earlier than we thought
A team of geochemists from University of California, Los Angeles published a report today that contests the widely-held belief that life on this planet began 3.8 billion years ago. The study, published in the journal PNAS, instead argues that life began 300 million years earlier. Life may have been here for 4.1 billion years -- that's older than the relentless asteroid bombardments that scarred the moon and nearly as long as the 4.54 billion year old planet itself.
